34 BALEARIC GBANE. 



In a private letter, Canon Tristram informs me tliat of his own 

 knowledge one specimen had been killed on the island of Pantellaria, 

 between Tunis and Sicily, and belonging to the latter. On the 

 other hand we find Keyserling and Blasius and Schlegel refuse to 

 admit it into the European list; and M. de Selys-Longchamps, in 

 a private letter to me, expresses a doubt of its European title. I 

 think, however, the proof of its occasional wandering from its African 

 home into European territory preponderates, and I therefore introduce 

 it into my book. 



The most recent occurrence of the Balearic Crane in Europe 

 probably is that noticed by Mr. Robert Gray, of Glasgow, who states 

 ("Ibis," 1872, p. 201) that one killed at Dairy, Ayrshire, on the 

 17th. September, 1871, is in the collection of Mr. Christy Horsfall. 



The bird is readily distinguished from the rest of the family by 

 its short beak and the peacock-like tuft on the top of the head. It 

 has a trumpet-like voice, and is easily domesticated. It is thus des- 

 cribed by Lieutenant Alex, von Homeyer, in "Cabanis' Journal," 

 for September, 1859, in a paper describing the Birds in the Zoological 

 Society of Frankfort: — 



"It is not so graceful a bird in its habits as the Numidian 

 (Demoiselle) Crane, but it is more lively and cheerful. The specimen 

 in the garden is a young bird, and dances and springs, often with 

 out-stretched wings. 



"In June and July it often called out in an upright position, 

 without bending its head or opening its beak, with a full, loud, 

 and ringing voice, 'rag, rag, rag,' at least twenty times together, 

 which note may easily be imitated by a strong tenor voice. I 

 seldom heard it during the autumn months; — the cry of fear when 

 seized hold of is a loud and unpleasant shriek, ^argargargarg' 

 repeated in rapid succession. The voice of G. virgo is quite 

 diiferent, and is very difficult to represent by words; the loud 

 tone is sharp and joyous, and may be represented somewhere between 

 tirr and terr. 



"B. pavonina liked to stand on one foot in a basin filled with 

 water, nearly three fourths of a foot deep, and would remain 

 so during the night, which, in a March temperature, did not seem 

 natural." 



Doderlein ("Avifauna del Modenese e della Sicilia") says of this 

 bird: — "It is indigenous to Africa and the Balearic Islands, according 

 to Swainson, Malherbe, and Bonaparte; is seen sometimes in the 

 remote island of Lampedusa, and on the western and southern 

 coasts of Sicily. As, however, we have no positive date of this fact, 



